Brother Introduces New Ultra Compact Personal Laser Printers Starting at under $150.00

Brother International Corporation Press Release

LAS VEGAS—(Business Wire)—Jan. 3, 2005 New HL-2040 and Network-Ready HL-2070N Set the Pace for Compact, Affordable, No Compromise Stand-Alone and Network Printers

Brother International Corporation today introduces its newest personal laser printers, the ultra-compact HL-2040 and HL-2070N. The HL-2040 ($149.99 estimated street price) is the successor to the award-winning HL-1440 personal laser printer, with even faster print speeds and a space-saving design almost 40% smaller than its predecessor. The HL-2070N ($229.99 estimated street price) features the same small footprint and print speeds and adds a built-in Ethernet print server for sharing on home and home office wired or wireless networks. The new models will be available starting in January 2005.

The sleek new HL-2040 and HL-2070N offer print speeds of up to 20ppm and outstanding print quality via Brother’s HQ1200 (up to 2400 x 600 dpi) resolution. Both printers are Windows(R) and Mac(R) compatible and feature a 250-sheet input paper capacity, as well as USB 2.0 full-speed and parallel interfaces as standard.

“We continue to see strong consumer demand for affordable personal monochrome laser printers for the home and home office,” said Jeff Sandler, Brother’s Director of Marketing, Printers. “With the new HL-2040 and HL-2070N, we are clearly addressing this market, while setting a new standard for printer size, functionality and performance at extremely compelling consumer price points.”

With the introduction of these two new models, Brother further strengthens its offerings in the personal monochrome laser market segment. These new lasers provide an economical, low-cost alternative to consumer color inkjet printers, and deliver an alternative output solution for frustrated users seeking to reduce their everyday printing costs.

Brother also sees the market for low-cost monochrome laser printers with built-in network interfaces as offering continued strong growth potential. IDC projects the U.S. wireless home and home office network segment to grow at a 36% CAGR between 2005 and 2008(1) . The new HL-2070N is ideally positioned to meet this rapidly expanding market segment, by offering these customers an affordable solution for low cost printer sharing.

COMPATIBILITY, PERFORMANCE AND VALUE
Beyond the features detailed above, the HL-2040 also sports a two-tone gray color scheme as well as 8MB memory capacity. The network-ready HL-2070N includes all the features of the HL-2040 but adds PCL(R)6 emulation, a built-in Ethernet network interface, 16MB of standard memory, and a dark charcoal, two-tone color scheme. (See attached Fact Sheet for details on specs and features). A toner-save feature is also available.

OPTIONS AND ACCESSORIES(+)
Both printers share the same patented two-piece toner/drum consumables. They ship with a starter toner cartridge that has a print capacity of approximately 1,500 pages(2) and a full, long-life (12,000 pages) DR-350 drum unit(3). Replacement TN-350 toner cartridges ($59.99 SRP) have a capacity of approximately 2,500 pages(1). The easy-to-install cartridges are seated in the DR-350 drum unit ($114.99 SRP).

An optional external network adapter is available for the HL-2040, and either model can also be configured for wireless printing via an optional external wireless 802.11b print server.

ABOUT BROTHER INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION
Bridgewater, New Jersey, is the corporate headquarters for Brother in the Americas, from Canada to South America. Brother has fully integrated sales, marketing services, manufacturing, research and development capabilities located in the U.S. In addition to its headquarters in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Brother has facilities in California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Tennessee, as well as subsidiaries in Ohio, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Mexico. For more information you can visit the web site at http://www.brother.com.

NOTE: All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

(*) Estimated Street Price

(+) Optional accessories require additional purchase

(1) Source: IDC, Worldwide Home Networking 2004-2008 Forecast and Analysis, IDC #31762, August 2004

(2) At 5% page coverage (letter)

(3) Yield may vary by type of use